Author's Notes:
Still not much going on. Mostly just schoolwork. I'm going to need
to get out and do something soon.

Midnight at the Singin'
Hound Lounge

Chapter 5- Bloodshed at
the Docks

Sango found herself
abruptly shaken from her sleep by Koga crashing down the basement
steps with all the grace of a charging rhino. "Get up!" he
barked, clearly upset about something. It was partly a blessing in
disguise, as it saved her from having to relive her recurring
nightmare that she was about halfway through when he barged in.

It didn't take long for
everyone to rouse themselves from sleep. "What the hell's the
rush?" Inuyasha grumbled as he rubbed the drowsiness from his
eyes.

Koga paused as if he would
hate himself for what he was about to say and looked off to the side.
"Glen and Vince are dead," he snapped.

That chased the last of
the sleep from Sango's system. "What?" She hadn't known
them, but Koga treated every one of his pack mates like brothers. If
two of them were dead, there would be hell to pay. And given the
circumstances, it would probably have something to do with all of
them.

"Mike found them this
morning," Koga explained, hands balling into fists at his sides.
"Shot in the back by choppers... We know who did it. The same
guy who murdered Kikyo."

That got Inuyasha's
attention. "The real killer? Who is it?"

"Name's Naraku,"
Koga growled as he sat at the table and raked a hand back through his
now-loose hair. "Naraku Hansen. He runs a smuggling operation
I fence for. But I guess he's wants to step up in the world.

"Glen and Vince
managed to report in before they were killed. Naraku wants to take
over my operations along with several others in the city. It's said
he hands out shards of an oriental jewel as a marker to those who
gain his favor, and that's how he's able to tell the loyalists
from... fellahs like me."

"What's this got to
do with us?" Inuyasha asked impatiently.

"Everything,"
Koga barked with equal impatience. "Kikyo was one of Naraku's
loyalists for a time, but she broke contact with him months ago. He
must have decided to knock her off when it was convenient and set
some rube up to take the fall. Guess who he picked."

Sango decided to cut in
before Inuyasha rose to the bait. "So this Naraku framed
Inuyasha and wants to take over your business?"

Koga tapped the tip of his
nose to confirm her thoughts. "Once he learns that all of you
are in this deep with me, you'll be next on his list of people to be
dealt with. Bastard doesn't like leaving loose ends."

"So what do we do?"
Miroku asked calmly.

"Fight back,"
Koga stated plainly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the
world. "It's not like we can go to the police on this one.
Price you pay for this lifestyle."

Silence reigned over the
room for a moment. Sango didn't like this at all. "Just how
are we supposed to fight back?" she tentatively asked.

Koga leveled his gaze at
her, remaining silent for a moment. "This is war," he
spoke at last, his tone carrying a solemn finality. "I'm
supposed to meet a few of Naraku's boys at the waterfront tonight
regarding some smuggled goods he wants me to ship out of town. But I
can guarantee you that his intention now is to get me out of
town. In a pine box."

"Well then just don't
go," Shippo exasperatedly snapped.

"Doesn't work that
way, kid," Koga growled. "If I don't show, he'll know that
I figured out his plan. Since he's already made a move, I have to
strike now before he gets another chance."

"I really don't like
where this is going," Kagome mumbled in a worried voice.

"Sorry, Kagome,"
Koga apologized gravely. "But I don't have a choice. I'm going
down there tonight to take out Naraku's boys personally. It's the
least I can do for Glen and Vince. Any of you going with me?"

"And let you go on
your own?" Kagome shot back. "Not a chance. I'm not about
to let you die for a vendetta."

Sango hung her head with a
long-suffering sigh. There they go again. Those two argued over
everything. At least this time Inuyasha had a good reason to
disagree. Normally he just did it to be contrary.

"Much as I hate to
admit it," Koga butted in, "Inuyasha's right. I'm not
going to put you further into the line of fire."

"You stay out of
this!" Kagome and Inuyasha barked at the same time, taking Koga
by complete surprise. The fact that they had spoken in unison didn't
even seem to register to the two as they turned back on one another
and continued their argument, which soon turned into a shouting
match.

"It's like watching a
force of nature," Miroku commented as he watched the verbal
battle unfold.

"There's a song in
that somewhere," Shippo remarked off-handedly.

"Might as well make
ourselves comfortable," Sango said at last as she settled into a
chair to watch. Everyone but Inuyasha seemed to realize the extent
of Kagome's feelings for him. Well... Koga seemed pretty blind, too,
but that was beside the point. Inuyasha on the other hand was harder
to read most of the time. He kept his emotions very guarded and
withdrawn. It was moments like this however that the barriers those
two put up started to breakdown. If they weren't so caught up in
yelling at each other, they would notice it.

"Don't you fucking
get it?" Inuyasha roared as he grasped fistfuls of his hair in
frustration. "If you died, I'd never be able to live with
myself!"

"How do you think I
feel?" Kagome practically screamed. "Didn't it ever occur
to you that it matters to me if you get hurt?"

Ah, right on cue. They
were like the protagonists in one of Shippo's comics. Obviously
romantically drawn to each other, constantly bickering like a married
couple, and so oblivious to the whole thing it made observers want to
bludgeon them both over the head and scream at them to just go off
and neck somewhere. In a way though Sango rather envied them. She
wished she had someone who cared about her that way. She had always
entertained the possibility of Miroku, but he was as secretive about
his feelings as Inuyasha. Perhaps that was what she found alluring
about him. He was detached, but in a more docile, secure way than
many other men she had known in her life.

She rubbed the bridge of
her nose, not wanting that particular train of thought to go any
further. "Listen, maybe we should all go. Strength in numbers,
right?"

"Sango has a point,"
Miroku remarked and held his chin between his thumb and forefinger
with a look of deep thought on his face. "We can all hold our
own in a fight. Inuyasha and I have had to double as bouncers on
more than one occasion."

Inuyasha and Kagome fell
silent as Koga watched them all with a critical eye for a moment.
"Fine," he growled at last, clearly not too happy with the
conclusion, but accepting it anyway. "Let me get you some guns
and we'll head out at sunset."

"Guns?"
Inuyasha asked in disgust. "You kiddin' me."

Koga arched a brow and
sneered. "What did you expect? I was gonna spit watermelon
seeds at 'em?"

Inuyasha snorted and
crossed his arms. "Guns are for people too weak to use their
fists. If I want to take somebody down, I'll do it face to face."

"Big talk," Koga
replied dismissively. "I got news for you, though. The guys at
the warehouse tonight will be armed and ready. You won't get close
enough to punch them. And it doesn't matter what you say to a
bullet, it's still gonna blow your head open. So unless you've
learned how to punch bullets away, you better shut up and take the
chopper I give you." With that, he turned on his heel and
strode off, taking the steps two at a time.

Sango pursed her lips.
She had gotten involved in bar fights before, but this was another
matter entirely. Of course, there wasn't much left to lose at this
point. Best to go down fighting.

-x-

Inuyasha quietly fumed as
he pulled the car Koga had loaned him up to the warehouse. There
were already three cars parked outside, and Koga was pulling up
beside them. The plan was that Koga would go in with Miroku and
Sango, then Inuyasha, Kagome, and Shippo would attack as soon as he
said "hot damn." They all climbed out of the cars and
nodded silently to one another to show that they were ready.

Inuyasha pressed his back
to the wall, awkwardly gripping the Tommy gun in his hands. Kagome
and Shippo lucked out and got Mauser pistols. They watched as Koga
walked up to the entrance with Kagome and Sango in tow. Inuyasha
strained his ears to listen.

"Koga, you made it,"
came the voice of a stranger from inside. "Pack mates of
yours?"

"Were those the two
stiffs mentioned in the paper this morning?" the stranger asked.

"Yeah," Koga
answered, his voice clearly containing a dangerous edge. "But
that's not important right now. You got the antiques you wanted me
to take off your hands?"

"Right this way."

"Well, hot damn."
That was the cue.

Inuyasha took off running
toward the door with Kagome and Shippo behind him. Gunshots started
ringing out before they even got there, and Inuyasha skidded to a
halt as several bullet holes appeared in the wall just ahead of him.
He bit back his surprise and continued for the door, jumping into the
room and pointing his gun forward to look for a target, but nobody
was visible.

"Get down, god
damnit!" Koga shouted from off to the side.

Inuyasha realized that in
the few seconds it had taken them to reach the door, everyone had
already ducked for cover. The warehouse was packed full of crates of
recently shipped-in goods, several now sporting bullet holes. A
gunshot rang out, and he felt a hot wind streak past his head. He
heard Kagome and Shippo let out strangled cries of surprise before
they all dove for cover.

When Inuyasha looked up,
Kagome was gone and he was next to Koga who was kneeling behind a
stack of crates with a Smith Wesson revolver. He stood up
slightly and took a shot. "Okay, there's six of us and eight
of them," he ground out.

"Eight?"
Inuyasha asked rhetorically.

"Well, it was
nine a second ago," Koga added with a smirk. He peered out from
behind the crate again that dropped onto his stomach with several
choice obscenities as a hail of bullets whizzed over them.

"Shit!" Inuyasha
roared. "Kagome! Where are you?" His shouting was
drowned out by the gunshots and their echoes off the concrete walls.

Several more gunshots rang
out followed by a shrill scream that Inuyasha immediately realized
was Kagome. Something inside him snapped, and he gripped the handles
of his Tommy gun until his knuckles went white. "But you gotta
start some time!" he roared.

A moment later, the
shooting stopped, and Inuyasha stood up with his gun leveled. He saw
three men hiding behind a set of crates getting ready to fire at what
he presumed was Kagome's hiding place. With that, he opened fire.
The recoil forced him to take a step back, but he delivered a spray
of bullets toward the three gunmen. Part of him only cared about
making them pay for hurting Kagome. The other, less emotional part
of him was amazed at how easy this thing was to use and how much
damage it could do. Inuyasha only stopped when he felt Koga pull him
back down.

"You really have no
idea what you're doing, do you?" he snapped angrily. "You're
wasting ammo and making yourself a sitting duck."

Inuyasha just made a rude
gesture and snorted. "I got three of 'em. You?"

That shut Koga up
momentarily. "Where are the others? Sango and Miroku took off
in the opposite direction I did."

They were interrupted by
another volley of gunfire. "Five more to go," Inuyasha
growled as he began slinking away, trying to get closer to where he
thought Kagome was.

"Where the hell do
you think you're going?" Koga barked.

Inuyasha didn't even
dignify him with a response. He just kept going. He spotted the
crates where the three men he shot had been firing on earlier and
dove out from behind his cover to make a run for it. A bullet
ricocheted off the floor in front of him, bringing Inuyasha to a
halt. He turned to his left to see one of the men pointing a pistol
right at him.

Inuyasha leveled his Tommy
gun and hoped he was faster, when he heard Sango let out a loud yell
of exertion, and a ten-foot-tall stack of crates behind the gunman
facing Inuyasha suddenly fell over. The man looked back and screamed
in alarm, trying to get out of the way, but was too late. He was
buried under the falling tower boxed goods.

Sango stood behind the
fallen crates, absently rubbing her shoulder with a frown before
running up to meet Inuyasha.

He wordlessly jerked his
head in the direction of Kagome's hiding place and they bolted for
it. More gunshots rang out, these ones targeted right at them.
"Damn fools," he heard Koga shout as he provided cover
fire.

Inuyasha and Sango both
leaped over the crates at the same time and landed on either side of
Kagome who had her hand pressed against her left upper arm, which was
bleeding. "Kagome!" Inuyasha exclaimed in alarm.

She had been surprised by
their sudden appearance, but relaxed visibly when she realized it was
them. "I got winged by a bullet," she explained through
clenched teeth.

"We need to stop the
bleeding," Sango firmly stated. "I need a compress and
something I can use as a bandage."

Inuyasha took off his tie
and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. Sango had learned first
aid from her father, so he knew to trust her judgment. "Will
this do?"

"For now," Sango
responded evenly and began dressing Kagome's wound.

"Where are Miroku and
Shippo?" Kagome asked through clenched teeth.

"No clue," Sango
said flatly as she focused on bandaging the wound. "Miroku and
I got separated after we ducked for cover. Said he had a plan."

"I lost sight of
Shippo when we came in," Inuyasha admitted.

Several gunshots rang out
throughout the warehouse and Koga let out several choice curses.
"Three more to go," They heard him shout.

Inuyasha hefted his gun
when two more shots shook the crates the three of them were hiding
behind. "We need to finish this now." He twisted around
the corner and looked for a target. One of the gunmen was trying to
make a getaway to a side entrance, and Inuyasha took the opportunity
to pick him off. Before he got a chance to find another target, an
ominous click came from the Tommy gun. "No," he breathed.
"No you don't!" He gave it a quick shake and tested the
trigger several more times. Out of ammo. "Damn! Damn, damn,
damn!"

"You're out of
bullets?" Kagome yelled in alarm.

"You want to tell the
whole world?" Inuyasha snapped back as one of the two remaining
enemies fired on their hiding place again. "Sango. Cover me.
This piece of junk is still good for one thing." With that, he
skulked off in a semi-circle. He sneaked around as quickly as he
could, diving past gaps in the mounds of crates. He just had to get
around to the bastard shooting at them.

Inuyasha peered around a
corner and saw the back of the gunman as he ducked behind a
rectangular box when Sango fired another shot at him. A moment
passed before he stood up and aimed his two revolvers. Inuyasha
seized the chance. Gripping the Tommy gun by the muzzle, he charged
up behind the man who turned just in time to see the stock of the
sub-machine gun rush toward his face.

Inuyasha spit on the
unconscious form of his opponent. "One left."

"And I'm getting out
of here," came a stranger's voice. Inuyasha looked over to
where the voice came from. The last of the gunmen stepped out of the
shadows with Miroku in front of him. The latter had his hands up
behind his head with a gun pointed to his back. "Nobody move,
or he dies."

"My plan kind of...
backfired," Miroku explained flatly.

-x-

Author's Notes: This is the first time I've ever written out a gunfight, so it's not
as elaborate as many of the other fight scenes I've come up with. I
guess I just need to do more so that I can get better at it.

Interestingly, finishing
up that old To Hell and Back project that I had nearly forgotten
about helped me overcome a block that was setting in. It probably
also helped that I just got Sky Captain on DVD. I don't care what
anyone says, that movie kicked ass.

I've also got a new
project lined up. January 2006, a friend of mine and I are going to
be producing our first featurette. He wanted to do a comedy, but my
specialty lies more in action/adventure and horror, so we came to a
compromise and decided to do a vignette parodying H.P. Lovecraft's
Cthulhu Mythos. I have several hooks I'm going to pitch to him this
week, work on an outline from there, and hopefully get the script
done by the end of the semester. We've shopped the idea around to
various departments on the campus, and have managed to generate a lot
of excitement about this project. I'll keep you posted on any
further developments over the next 11 months.

kireinor: You'll
see eventually. Like I said before, I want to keep this story short
and fast so it doesn't eat up too much of my time. As I type this,
there are a lot of other things I should be doing, but am not.

xSilverShadowsx:
Competition, yes, but I think we all know that he'll get the girl in
the end.

Magellan-chan: You
get the broken-loose hell, and as a bonus you also get an
old-fashioned pulp fiction cliffhanger.

Jurei: You got your
little reprieve and it's right back to the action. The tricky thing
about pulp is keeping the roller coaster suspense feeling going
across the whole story arc. Even when the characters get a moment to
catch their breath, you have to feel a sense of urgency. That's not
easy to create.

Mimiko: There's the
gunfight I promised. Like I said, that's the first time I've written
one, so I hope it turned out okay.

Fanny T: I don't
have that album, and I don't think I'll be able to get it for a
while. Next month is Sims 2: University and Freedom Force 2.
Combine that with Judas Priest's new album, Angel of Retribution and
a new album by Belgian hard rock band El Guapo Stuntteam and my bank
account is pretty much... raped, mutilated, and executed.

On
one final sidenote, what the fuck is wrong with this site? As I'm
typing this, I had to go back and fix the chapter because even though
everything was fine on my harddrive, the document manager here decided
to erase more of the punctuation. Jesus tap-dancing Christ.
Who do I complain to? The document manager on this site is
becoming more of a hassle than a help and I wonder if anybody's
told the admins this yet.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.